Air traffic controllers lost communication for about 10 minutes before a small Mexican navy plane carrying a young medical patient and seven others crashed in thick fog off the Texas coast, killing at least six people, the Mexican government said Tuesday.
The plane was working with a nonprofit group transporting severely burned Mexican children to a hospital in Galveston, near Houston, when the plane crashed Monday afternoon. Officials believed the plane had landed, but the flight had lost contact with air traffic controllers, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said at a Tuesday morning briefing.
Crews found five bodies and pulled two survivors from the wreckage, then went on a day-long search in the waters off Galveston for 29-year-old Navy Lt. Luis Enrique Castillo. Back in their rural town in southern Mexico, Castillo’s family is left searching for answers, hoping for the best for their missing son.
“We don’t know what to do,” her father, Eduardo Castillo, said Tuesday. “All we can do is wait. We can’t go to the United States, we don’t have visas.”
The search ended Tuesday night when search crews found Castillo’s body. U.S. officials are investigating the cause, but the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday it could take a week or more to recover the plane.
“What happened is very tragic,” Sheinbaum said at her morning press briefing, adding that sailors were among the dead.
The plane was very low during descent
When the twin turboprop Beech King Air 350i approached Galveston’s Shoals International Airport, radar showed it was too low, said Jeff Guzzetti, a former NTSB and Federal Aviation Administration accident investigator.
Guzzetti said that the navigation system of the runway where the plane is supposed to land has been out of service for about a week. The system sends signals to the cockpit of the airplane to help the pilots navigate the bad weather that beset the area. The fog was so thick that meteorologists estimated visibility at only half a mile.
The pilot should have aborted the landing if the runway was not visible at an altitude of 205 feet (62.5 meters), climbing back before trying again or looking for another airport altogether, Guzzetti said.
Guzzetti said the reported radar track showed the pilot had descended 200 feet (61 meters), a full 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the runway.
“Maybe there was some kind of mechanical malfunction,” he said. “But looking at the recorded flight track and comparing it to the weather and airport equipment outages, it looks like this landing approach never happened.”
A witness describes the scene of the accident
The plane crashed in a bay near the base of the causeway that connects Galveston Island to the mainland. The popular beach destination is about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Houston.
Sky Decker, a professional yacht captain who lives near the crash site, said he jumped into his boat to see if he could help. He picked up two police officers who led him through the thick fog to the nearly sunken plane. Decker jumped into the water and found a badly injured woman trapped under chairs and other debris.
“She had a 3-inch (7.6 cm) air gap to breathe,” he said. “And there was jet fuel mixed with water, the smoke was really bad. She was really fighting for her life.”
He said he also pulled out a man sitting in front of him who was already dead.
The family left
Eduardo Castillo gathered with his family and friends Tuesday afternoon in the small community of El Pantano in the southern Mexican state of Veracruz.
The father, who worked long hours as a carpenter to give his son the opportunity he never had, was refreshing his phone every few minutes, looking for any news of his missing son. He said the Mexican Marine provided few details other than the call that his son was missing.
Framed photos of Luis Enrique Castillo and his many diplomas lined the walls of their home. He and his wife were expecting a baby in three months.
On Tuesday night, Castillo heard his phone ring and answered it, hearing the words he dreaded. His son had died.
“Now he will never see his unborn child,” Edward Castillo said as his family hugged and cried around him.
Researchers look for the cause
An NTSB spokesman said in an email that investigators will review maintenance records, weather forecasts and air traffic control communications. A preliminary report is expected within 30 days.
Guzzetti said the investigation will also look at how serious the young patient’s medical condition was and how motivated the pilot was to land.
“There have been accidents in the past in the Hawaii medical community where pilots try to push their luck to save a patient,” he said.
The plane had a “very, very proven design,” said aviation safety expert John Cox. He said that this is the latest version of the series which has been in use since the 1960s and will be equipped with all modern electronics, avionics and instruments.
The plane was assisting in a medical mission
The Mexican Navy said the plane was helping with a medical mission in coordination with Michau and the Mau Foundation.
A charity has been set up after a mother died trying to save her children from a fire. One child died, while the other survived after treatment at Shriners Children’s Texas in Galveston. In 23 years, the foundation has helped transfer more than 2,000 patients to that hospital and other medical facilities with burn expertise, according to the charity’s website.
In a social media post, the foundation expressed its condolences to the families of those killed in the accident.
Shriners Children’s Texas said in a statement that it was “deeply saddened” to learn of the accident but was unable to provide any information about the child’s condition.
The accident occurred while focusing on aviation safety
The latest crash comes amid a year of intense scrutiny over aviation safety following a string of high-profile crashes and flight disruptions during a government shutdown fueled by a lack of air traffic controllers.
A January midair collision between a military helicopter and an airliner near Washington, DC, followed the crash of a medical transport plane in Philadelphia. This fall’s fiery UPS plane crash only added to the concern. Still, the total number of accidents in 2025 was actually slightly lower than last year, and experts say flying is safer overall.
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Marquez reported from El Pantano and Janetsky reported from Mexico City. Hallie Golden contributed to this report.
